"Everyone associated with those games should be ashamed of themselves"

Last week, U.S. president Donald Trump held a meeting with industry executives to discuss the issue of violence in video games, a meeting which was viewed by many as a way of scapegoating interactive entertainment in relation to the recent spate of school shootings in the...

Yesterday, U.S. president Donald Trump held a meeting with video game executives regarding the issue of violence in video games, an event which was triggered by a recent series of high school shootings in the country. Trump himself has stated the opinion that the shooting in Parkland, Florida could have...

The Switch's incredible commercial performance has not only given Nintendo a much-needed boost; it has also created opportunities for publishers and developers of all shapes and sizes, too.
The console's eShop is packed with indie titles and we're seeing a number of those getting released in...

The UK games market grew 12.4 percent in 2017 to £5.11 billion, thanks in part to the incredible success of the Nintendo Switch.
The introduction of Nintendo's new console saw hardware sales jump 29.9 percent. Sales of physical software rose 3.1 percent, but the pre-owned market fell by 15.1 percent, a...

Publisher THQ Nordic is set to acquire Koch Media in a deal understood to be worth €121 million ($149.6 million).
The deal is for the entirety of Koch's business, which includes the video game publisher Deep Silver. Deep Silver oversees franchises such as Saints Row, Dead Island and Metro, and is acting...

Genyo Takeda may not be a household name in quite the same way as Shigeru Miyamoto, but he's been an incredibly important staff member at Nintendo for the past few decades and his contribution to the games industry in general is being recognised by The Academy of Interactive Arts &...

Nintendo has released its Third Quarter Results for this financial year, and the big headline is that in less that a year on sale the Switch has managed to surpass the lifetime sales of its forerunner, the Wii U.
The figures show a company in rude health, with net sales up 175.5 percent...

Swedish studios Image & Form and Zoink! Games have joined forced to create Thunderful, a new entity which will wholly own both companies. They're not going away, however; the two Gothenburg-based studios will "continue to develop games with existing and new IPs under their respective...

THQ Nordic - the company formally known as Nordic Games - has confirmed that it has a pair of Nintendo Switch titles in development.
CEO Lars Wingefors revealed the news during an announcement regarding the company's latest IP acquisitions. THQ Nordic now owns the rights to Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy, War...

Capcom's library of games is arguably the envy of the industry, thanks in part to the company's prolific coin-op output during the '80s and '90s. During this period the firm pumped out classics like Strider, 1942, Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Captain Commando, Street Fighter, Darkstalkers...

Even long before Pokémon GO, rival games companies looked on enviously at the Pokémon franchise and wanted to get a slice of the action for themselves. Who can forget Invizimals on the Sony PSP? OK, bad example!
Australian indie developer Nic Watt, from Nnooo which has published multiple Nintendo eShop titles, recently revealed on the...

Former Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi has been inducted into the 2016 Consumer Technology Hall of Fame.
Yamauchi - who relinquished his presidency in 2002 to Satoru Iwata and sadly passed away in 2013 - has been recognised in the "Video Game Futurist" category. He joined Nintendo in 1949 and oversaw the company's...

SNK Playmore has announced that it is dropping the "Playmore" from its name and will once again be known as SNK.
Founded in 1978 as Shin Nihon Kikaku, the company produced arcade hits like Ikari Warriors and Alpha Mission before creating its own coin-op standard in the form of the Neo Geo system. Titles like King of...

The head of Japanese studio PlatinumGames has stepped down, according to a report by GamesBusiness.jp.
CEO Tatsuya Minami resigned at the end of March and has been replaced by Kenichi Sato. As part of the reshuffle, Seigo Tabira and Atsushi Inaba join the management as company directors.
Minami...

Nintendo has enjoyed great success with sales of amiibo figures since they first began to appear on store shelves in late November 2014 alongside Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS. However, the toys-to-life market has become a bit saturated since that time with amiibo battling in the same...

Nintendo UK has had a pretty busy period in terms of staff changes. Leading figures such as marketing boss Shelly Pearce, head of PR Jo Bartlett, brand manager Roger Langford, product manager Vanisha Kavia, community manager Jonathan Town and Junior PR manager Emily Wooliscroft have all left...

Virtual Reality is set to go big this year, with challengers like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR all entering a market which is predicted to be worth hundreds of millions over the next few years.
Despite tentatively dipping a toe into this sector two decades ago with the ill-fated Virtual...

Assassin's Creed studio Ubisoft is in danger of being taken over by mass media conglomerate Vivendi, claims boss Yves Guillemot.
Vivendi - which has history in the games industry with companies like Activision Blizzard and Sierra - has been aggressively seeking a controlling stake in...

Nintendo has had something of a rollercoaster year as far as its share price is concerned. Speculation surrounding the NX as well as the expectation (and subsequent delay) of the company's first smartphone app Miitomo have resulted in value of its shares dropping and

2016 is the year that Nintendo reveals more about the NX, which - it has been rumoured - could unify the company's handheld and domestic console markets.
Despite the chatter, no one really seems to know what the console is all about let alone have any idea about a potential Nintendo NX release...

Next year we're going to hear a lot more about Nintendo's next console, currently codenamed NX. The system has been shrouded in secrecy since it was first announced earlier this year, but rumours are circulating that it could be a console/handheld hybrid which effectively unites the two markets...

Japanese firm Agatsuma Entertainment has revealed that it is closing its doors.
The publisher of Code of Princess and Yumi's Odd Odyssey, Agatsuma has been officially dissolved as of today. Liquidation will occur on March 31st, 2016.
The firm was perhaps best known for assisting with...

Nintendo's smartphone gaming partner DeNA appears to be restructuring its Singapore office ahead of what could be the biggest year in its history.
DeNA is working with Nintendo on a host of smartphone games which it hopes will rake in $25 million a month in revenue. The first games will be released in...

Michael Pachter - the industry analyst that all Nintendo fans love to hate - has been sounding off about the company's next console, currently dubbed NX.
While Pachter has some harsh words to share, he's also looking on the positive side with his predictions for NX. According to the Wedbush Securities...

A new study in the US has revealed that more women own games consoles than men, flying in the face of the common perception that the hobby is dominated by male players.
Conducted by the Pew Research Centre, the research indicates that 42 percent of US women own a games console, compared to 37 percent of...

SNK Playmore has announced that it is abandoning the manufacture of Pachinko machines in favour of focusing totally on video games and smartphone titles.
The company began making Pachinko units when it was acquired by Aruze in 2000, a company famous for its Pachinko machines. SNK would file for bankruptcy in 2001 but...

Nintendo has a reputation of innovation within the games industry which runs all the way back to the '80s, when the company blazed a trail with its Game & Watch series - the first hardware to showcase the now-commonplace D-pad. Since then, we've seen the company embrace cutting-edge tech ahead of...

It's widely acknowledged that the broader video game industry, encompassing both dedicated systems and smart devices, is now statistically and definitively one of the most powerful entertainment industries in the world. In recent years its profile has increased a great deal, making gaming...

Last month we reported that The Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA for short) in the US was holding a vote to see if its members would support strike action in order to improve the working conditions of voice actors in the video game sector...

"People have mobile phones and it's so easy to play games on smartphones"

With the Wii U failing to match the original Wii in terms of commercial success Nintendo has, to a certain extent, relied on its current handheld platform, the 3DS, to balance the books.
However, even that system has struggled to replicate the performance of its immediate...

American business publication Fortune has recently asked the big question 'Can Super Mario save Nintendo from itself?' and to answer that question has consulted the wisdom of several analysts including Nintendo Life reader favourite Michael Pachter. With Super Mario Maker seemingly...

We could see the end of dedicated games hardware in the near future, states Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter.
Speaking at DICE Europe last week, the outspoken industry expert tackled the issue of the end of the console era, and pointed out that in terms of pure sales figures, this...

Takuro Yamashita thinks Nintendo's current handheld still has time left

The next-gen console race is now in full swing, but NIS America president and CEO Takuro Yamashita thinks that the current pair of handheld systems - 3DS and Vita - have some time left before they need replacing.
Speaking to MCV at Gamescom, Yamashita said he felt it was the...

It is being reported that Nintendo's next games console - currently known as the Nintendo NX - will launch in July 2016.
The source of the report is Taiwanese site DigiTimes, which is claiming that manufacturer Foxconn has won the contract to produce the console. However, it is thought that rival firm...

Howard Phillips - one of the most recognisable figures in Nintendo's history - has a new job.
Phillips - who was once given the nickname "Gamemaster" at Nintendo and was responsible for overseeing many of the hit titles that were released for Nintendo's NES console - has joined Berlin-based GameDuell and...

During this year's E3, a whole bunch of industry veterans met at the Lunch with Luminaries event. In this yearly talk Gaikai and Shiny founder Dave Perry invites big names for a in-depth discussion about the games industry, and this time around we had Gearbox Software president Randy Pitchford, Boss Key...

Nintendo of America has a new Vice President of Sales with a name that will be instantly familiar with fans of Mario. Before you get your hopes up, it's not who you think.
Doug Bowser - not that Bowser - joins Nintendo from Electronic Arts, where he was employed as Vice President of Global Business Planning. He...

Konami has been in the headlines a lot lately. First up were those troublesome rumours regarding the impending departure of Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear series and arguably the Japanese company's most valuable and famous employee. It would appear that Kojima is set to...

Nintendo caused quite a stir when it announced its partnership with Japanese mobile firm DeNA and that it was working on its next hardware platform, dubbed "Nintendo NX". This double-whammy of news was greeted with a positive reaction, not only from the

The Wii U's commercial struggles and the massive rise in popularity of smart devices has seen many within the industry predict that Nintendo will go multi-platform sooner rather than later, but Shigeru Miyamoto has poured a large bucket of cold water all over such prophecies in a recent...

The Wii and DS consoles were systems which achieved incredible global success and marked Nintendo's shift from "core" players to a much larger market, dubbed "casual gamers". Titles like Wii Sports, Wii Fit and Brain Training made gamers of people who had historically never taken any interest in interactive...

We all know the Wii U is struggling right now, but Nintendo still has plenty of tricks up its sleeve — yesterday's Mario Kart 8 DLC announcement being proof of that — and it would appear that the wider industry feels the same way, too.
Speaking to Examiner, Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg has...

A recent survey commissioned by IHS in partnership with Gamer Network has revealed that Nintendo's strong showing at E3 caused a massive spike in purchasing intent for the Wii U.
Around a thousand core gamers were quizzed on various purchase intentions before and after the event. The Wii U began E3 as...

As any self-respecting Nintendo fan will know, Chris and Tim Stamper are the siblings who formed famous UK studio Rare. Once part of the Nintendo family and responsible for such hits as Donkey Kong Country, GoldenEye 007 and Banjo Kazooie, Rare is now under the wing of Microsoft — and the Stampers have...

Wii owners who decided against buying a PS3 or 360 are flocking to the PS4 in droves, according to Sony Computer Entertainment boss Andrew House.
Speaking to Eurogamer at the recent Develop conference in the UK, House echoed recent statements made by Sony Worldwide Studios...

Sony's president of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida has always had good words to say about Nintendo — he owns not one but two Wii U consoles, after all. He shows no sign of giving up his amiable relationship with the Kyoto firm, and has made some very positive noises in a recent interview with

While a number of Nintendo gamers and observers will have reacted to Nintendo's Quality of Life platform announcement earlier this year with curiosity and wondered what it could mean, there was a substantial group that expressed concern. The reasoning was simple — if Nintendo was...

As you may be aware, Nintendo recently hosted The 74th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, in which company management provides presentations to its shareholders and answers a number of questions — Satoru Iwata was unable to attend. The official transcript of that meeting has been published, which...

The results from Nintendo's AGM are in, and as we already know, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata isn't going anywhere — his approval rating has actually risen over the past year by 3 percent.
Last year, his rating was 77.26 percent, but this year's figure is a slightly better 80.64 percent.
However, this rise was...

"You have to make some hard calls when you've got only so many people"

EA's support for Nintendo platforms is pretty lacking in general right now, but the 3DS and Wii U aren't the only systems the publisher is turning its back on — it has all but retreated from the dedicated portable console market, instead choosing to put its efforts into the...

Legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto recently did an interview with the LA Times where he discussed Nintendo's focus on creating games which entertain, as opposed to simply trying to be "cool".
He even went on to say that Nintendo should have a genre of their own.
Nintendo isn’t one...

Nintendo's 74th annual general meeting (AGM) for shareholders took place today in Japan and we can confirm that Satoru Iwata has retained his position as Nintendo's president. Iwata of course was not present at today's meeting due to his recovery from recent surgery.
We are yet to learn what this year's investor approval rating...

One of the most common complaints we hear from Wii U owners is the lack of third party support for the system — aside from a handful of publishers, most of the big names working in the industry have all but abandoned Nintendo's system, presumably due to the lack of earning potential.
Nintendo is aware that...

The Wii U, it's fair to say, is currently enjoying its most positive spell of coverage and attention since it launched, with strong sales numbers for Mario Kart 8 combining with an excellent E3 showing to deliver some serious buzz. Perhaps unsurprisingly it's all about first-party games...

"Nintendo has to perform this year, otherwise they will have less games"

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has passed judgement on the Wii U's future in an interview with CVG, stating that the Japanese firm needs to get more machines into homes if it wants to remain a key player in the market.
Guillemot — whose company has supported the Wii U perhaps...

Since 2008, Japanese developer Capcom has had a takeover defence plan in place to stop the company from being bought out by other parties, and this has been renewed every two years since. It outlined several options for the company should it be faced by a potential large-scale share investor, and one...

Following Nintendo's E3 exploits, we now have a greater idea of what content is coming to the Wii U in the remainder of 2014 and beyond. It was an event with some genuine surprises, combined with expected details, and laid out the path for the system — GamePad included — for the...

Neversoft, the developer behind the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, has merged with Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward to form a brand new "super studio".
A memo written by CEO of Activision Publishing Eric Hirshberg — and subsequently obtained by Giant Bomb — outlines the deal:...

Earlier this week GameStop hosted its 2014 Investor Day, at which it outlined some core business plans for the coming year. What does that mean for gamers? Less stores, basically.
It's not a mass closure, but the company is clearly looking to streamline its business — it's planning to close 120-130...

Capcom may have enjoyed another smash hit with Monster Hunter 4 in Japan, with hopes of the Ultimate release achieving success worldwide, but it's had a hit-and-miss period in other areas. Just recently the company cut its profit projections by 50%, citing investment, an underperforming mobile sector and...

In news surprising for its scale if not, unfortunately, its occurrence, the Disney Game and Internet Division — better known as Disney Interactive — has laid off around 700 employees today. The strong performance of Disney Infinity last year helped improve the financial performance of the...

Some Nintendo fans may be sick of hearing about it, but talk of Nintendo's potential if it decided to shift some work to iOS and Android devices still perks the ears of a number of investors. The jury is asked to consider the financier who suggested a model where players would pay 99 cents...

The Zero Escape series, which features the puzzle-based visual novels 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors on the DS and Virtue's Last Reward on the 3DS and Vita, has always included the carrying of hope in desperate times as a theme. Series director Kotaro Uchikoshi is now finding himself trying to maintain a similar...

Yesterday, Nintendo revealed that it was slashing its hardware projections for this financial year and that it expects to make a loss — not the kind of news that under-fire president Satoru Iwata will have wanted to impart to investors and shareholders, we're sure.
Iwata himself has...

The news that Nintendo has reduced its hardware sales projections for this financial year and expects to make a loss has come as quite a blow to dedicated followers of the company, and has led some critics to repeat claims that the firm needs to move away from making its own hardware and embrace rival...

Today's somewhat dismal financial results have given Nintendo fans plenty of food for thought, as well as providing the company's critics with all the ammunition they need.
Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Asset Management Co. in Tokyo, feels that Nintendo needs to...

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has taken responsibility for the poor financial results posted earlier today but has insisted that he will remain in charge in order to steer the Japanese company through these testing times.
Nintendo's latest report reveals that it expects to sell less Wii U and 3DS consoles by the...

Remember the good old days when video game firms used to say all kinds of nasty things about their rivals to get the upper hand? It would seem the days Genesis does what Nintendon't are long past, as modern companies appear to be increasingly keen to praise one another.
Microsoft and Sony...

As should be well known by now, plenty in the media have not looked favorably upon the Wii U's performance to date. Yet while some say Nintendo should throw in the towel when it comes to hardware or dive headlong into the new hotness of mobile games, Sam Byford on The Verge holds a...

Movements like Operation Rainfall demonstrate a community’s interest in seeing certain games or features become accessible; in Operation Rainfall’s case, advocates eventually saw their wishes granted by Nintendo, but was that a direct result of their efforts? According to Nintendo of America...

There's a lot of Nintendo-related doom and gloom floating around at the moment — some of which we feel it is our duty to report — but today we've got a little bit of positive news. The Financial Post has stated what we knew all along: Nintendo's two systems are the best option for prospective buyers...

The Wii U has taken quite a beating in the last few days — first being outsold by Xbox One and PS4 — and then Super Mario 3D World under-performing at retail despite critical acclaim.
With the PS4 and Xbox One currently doing rather well, what exactly is the Wii U doing...

Nintendo may make some of the best games in the world, but it also creates some of the finest piece of gaming hardware, too. However, the industry as we know it is changing. The traditional console makers are now competing with the likes of Apple and Google. In addition to this,...

Investment site The Motley Fool — which recently painted a rather dismal picture of Nintendo's future — has performed a complete about-face by claiming that Nintendo could end up being the big winner this holiday season.
The opinion piece points out that although the Wii U has...

Nintendo is linked to baseball teams, love hotels, and even Mahjong sets, so it should come as no surprise it has other unique partnerships helping to expand the brand name globally.
With this in mind, US cruise ship operator Norwegian Cruise Line has announced a partnership expansion with Nintendo to offer brand new Wii U...

Mobile gaming is something Nintendo reportedly has no plans of participating in anytime soon. President Satoru Iwata previously made it clear Nintendo would lose its identity if it were to make such a move. On other occasions, he has said this field of games and software development is under absolutely no consideration...

We've known that Sony's Shuhei Yoshida is a fan of the Wii U for some time — he has previously revealed that he owns Nintendo's current home console — but in a chat with IGN's Greg Miller, he has spoken a little more of his desire to see the console become a success.
During the interview, Yoshida mentioned...

Disney Interactive has seen its fortunes turning around as of late, thanks largely to the release of Disney Infinity, but that doesn’t mean the division still isn’t doing some restructuring.
According to the New York Times, Disney Interactive Co-President John Pleasants announced

Disney Interactive has been a financially struggling arm of the Walt Disney Company, but its investment in Disney Infinity is showing a significant payout as more game consumers are putting their money where the mouse is.
According to Disney's latest earnings report, Disney Interact

If you're a Nintendo fan, then the chances are you probably don't think much of EA right now. Following assurances that the company would enjoy an "unprecedented relationship" with the creator of the Wii U, EA has practically abandoned Nintendo, to the point where its sales across Wii, Wii U...

Nintendo 2DS was "comfortably the UK's best selling console" last week, according to MCV.
The latest addition to the 3DS family launched alongside the immensely popular Pokémon X & Y, and was slashed to a sub-£100 pricepoint by major UK retailers such as Tesco and Amazon. From...

Although EA has received much criticism for its poor support of the Wii U in recent times, it appears to make sense to the video game giant from a business perspective.
EA’s decision to abandon Nintendo’s current generation home console has been validated with its most recent financial figures, which reveal that just...

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata made an appearance at a press conference in Osaka, Japan earlier today to explain the company's most recent financial results.
Speaking about the ongoing troubles that Nintendo is currently experiencing with the Wii U, Iwata suggested that both the...

Long-running UK video game magazine EDGE recently turned 20, and to mark the occasion it ran a poll to see what its readers consider to be the 20 greatest games to be released since the publication's birth in 1993.
Unsurprisingly for Nintendo fans, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and...

Outspoken game developer David Jaffe — famous for his work on the Twisted Metal and God of War series — has suggested that Nintendo should sell itself to Disney if it wants to move forward as a company.
Speaking to Hip Hop Gamer in an interview which contains some profanity — this is...

Yesterday, we reported that French publisher Ubisoft had pushed back the highly-anticipated Watch_Dogs to Spring 2014, and today brings more dismal news — it has been confirmed during a conference call that both Rayman Legends and

"Nintendo’s greatest strength, and its greatest weakness, is innovation"

Rayman Legends creator Michel Ancel has been speaking to Official Nintendo Magazine about Nintendo's position in the industry, and has pointed out that the company's greatest strength — and weakness — is its willingness to take risks and come up with fresh ideas:...

Trade publication MCV has revealed that the release of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD has caused a 685% increase in Wii U console sales in the United Kingdom — however, it's not been revealed exactly how many units that jump entails.
The news backs up Nintendo's stance that games...

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has been speaking at the recent B Dash Camp Osaka 2013 about his company's outlook on business and where it sees itself in the industry, as well as making the Pokémon series a success in the west.
Iwata says that Nintendo doesn't fear failure, and that...

The Wii U still isn't exactly where Nintendo wants it to be, with sales continuing to flag in both the West and Japan. The topic of third party support for the console has cropped up several times during 2013, but Nintendo's Scott Moffitt feels the system is in a strong position as we approach the...

It's no secret that the world of games development has shifted slightly in the past few years. Japan was once the centre of the gaming universe, with companies such as Square, Konami, Capcom, Sega and of course Nintendo offering the best titles the world had to offer. While those companies are still doing sterling work,...

MCV is reporting that Capcom Europe is to cut "more than half" of its workforce in a major restructuring campaign.
The move comes after a similar move in the US, and follows a disappointing year for the company which saw titles like Lost Planet 3, Resident Evil 6 and DmC: Devil May...

It has been confirmed that Sega of America has laid off a number of its staff. VentureBeat has reported that the number of employees affected is "small", but the exact figure is currently unknown.
A spokesperson for Sega said:
As the gaming industry continues to evolve, companies must adapt and adjust in order to compete and...

UPDATE: It's now been confirmed that SEGA — or rather a part of the company called Sega Dream Corporation — has indeed bought Atlus. It's anticipated that the deal will be wrapped up by 1st November, and the following was in the press release.
The Company believes that transfer of Index's...

The unexpected announcement of the 2DS has led to some rather interesting opinion pieces appearing online, many of which actually defend Nintendo's move and see the cut-price console for what it truly is: an entry-level proposition that is sure to find its way under many Christmas trees this holiday...

Atari founder Nolan Bushnell has spoken about Nintendo's current situation and admitted that the company finds itself in a "very difficult position".
Talking to the BBC at Campus Party Europe — a London-based O2 event involving thousands of developers working on various technology...

The Wii U badly needs third party support — that's a fact that few people will argue about. With the Xbox One and PS4 looming on the horizon, Nintendo is doing its utmost to attract publishers and developers, but Bethesda’s Pete Hines feels that it's too little, too late.
Speaking on...

Video games have long been blamed for many of the ills of modern society, and violent titles such as Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and Mortal Kombat are regularly used as scapegoats to explain tragic incidents, slipping moral standards or general delinquent activities.
However, new research at...

Dan Tudge, a former vice-president and executive producer at Electronic Arts, has ranked up in title to become President of Orlando, Fla.-based independent developer n-Space.
According to GamesIndustry International, the former president of n-Space, co-founder Dan O’Leary, is now the company’s CEO...

Going multiplatform would be a "short-term" fix, says Nintendo President

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has been speaking to CVG about the possibility of the company bringing its famous IPs to other platforms, and the message remains the same: Not on my watch.
Nintendo and Iwata have come under intense pressure lately to at least consider...